Will He Be King? New Prince Of Persia Footage

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Right, so that Mirror’s Edge trailer was three weeks old, despite being posted as new by evil sites who I will now destroy, so it’s gone. HAPPY? Good. So instead, below is some new footage (and by God it had better be new) of Prince of Persia. (Surely the next game should be called Prince Of Iran?)

The first video is a super-emo (but nicely put together trailer) showing off the pretties. The second is in-game footage. And it’s the second one that concerns me slightly. I’m not seeing the Prince do anything new, beyond the sidekick game device. It seems more of a variation of the last three PoP games, rather than the stellar leap forward Sands of Time represented. Hopefully they’re saving the big surprises for nearer December’s release.

The more I see of this of this game the more I think I’m really gonna enjoy it. Love the environments. Looks like the kinda game you could really admire. Hopefully the combat’s as slick as it looks but without the use of QTE’s! I want skill not simple button presses.

I’ve said it before and i’ll say it again here: Erika (the girl) looks like a ‘win button’….. i wonder how automated her actions are because it makes the game look boring if all that jumping from the orange spheres is automated from the initial jump point.

Still going to buy it – hopefully it’ll have enough of the spirit from The Sands of Time to make it worthwhile. My gut tells me that it’ll be equivalent to Assassin’s Creed in rating and scores.

@stalins ghost I think that’s indicative of the industry as a whole.
Outside of the Valves and the indies, stylistically, games have become increasingly m.o.r.
It’s like they have a pre approved list:
“We need to be stylistic different!”
1) Cellshading
2) Emo
3) Beefcakes
4) MORE COLOURS!

Don’t get me started on how blandly generic bad guys look now a days [Gears of War’s shapeless detail-less burns victims a prime example].

Personally I think the sidekick really breaks the whole run jump climb aspect of the game. Sonic Bounce Pads aside, the girl seems almost magical in her ability to fling you through the air. Sands of Time felt like you were doing impossibly athletic feats, this shows that not only can someone else do it better than you, but they help you along with magic rather than the sweat of your brow.

There is a hands on article on one of the other game sites who’s name I will not sully this master-work with (can’t find the link), but it basically said that the 4 face buttons are bound to sword, gauntlet, acrobatics and Elika (that’s her name isn’t it?). That makes her effectively one of the players moves rather than an AI interruption at certain points. If you want to use her in combat or to do a double jump in the platform sections then you have to call her in. This alleviates some of my concerns about the character, knowing that she is just another game play mechanic at my control rather than something that will impose itself on me is good.

The combat is apparently a free form flowing combo system based on those 4 buttons doing actions. You press the next button as one move finishes rather than rattling off a quick AABA+quarter_right_circle sort of combo. If it works and is easy to control then it could help the cinematic feel of the combat, if it doesn’t work it will just be a pain.

The art style is very pretty. My only real concern is what seems to be a lack of continuity with the previous games. I’m not expecting a continuation of those stories but this looks like a completely new IP to me. I just wonder if they’ve slapped the name on it to boost recognition and sales.

The girl seems way too powerful, makes the prince feel like a unnecessary burden rather than a helpfull addition to the tag team.

The magical teleport-style jumping between the red dots looks awful. Then again, so does most of the things she “lends a hand” with (e.g. jumping long distances, which looks like double-jumping which has been lame in almost every game ever released). I did like the combat scene though, where she pounces off the prince’s back to make his strike harder, looked kinda cool. Or maybe it was the atmospheric soundtrack that made it seem like an epic struggle against an invincible mob. But still, the only way I will completely approve of her, is a co-op mode!

In addition, the combat doesn’t do it for me. I like the idea of making every combat seem more epic instead of having a bunch of mindless trash mob types to clear your way though, but I know I will miss the group fights (I hear it’s only 1on1+Elika now). Fighting five mobs at once in the previous games was a blast, cause it looked so damn cool, yet it wasn’t too hard to pull off those awesome moves.

The combat worries me, a little. One of the things I liked about the earlier PoPs’ combat was that it involved a lot of grappling and maneuvering; this game, on the other hand, seems to be very combo based. I know it’s a bit early to make a judgment based on little clips from one trailer, but something I noticed about halfway through is that each combat clip involved the same move. PoP had combos too, but one of the points of having several different ones was the grappling and maneuvering; they offered you different ways to get outside of a circle of enemies, or let you throw enemies different ways to take advantage of the surroundings. This, though, looks like pretty standard combo-based juggling; you pick one enemy and try and string out a combo as long as you can by giving the correct responses in turn. They might even try adding “depth” to the system by putting in “RPG Elements” . . . which means that every so often you unlock a new, more powerful combo that involves pressing more buttons!

Again, it’s really too early to judge, but I’m hoping they’re going to be tossing something tremendously new into the mix, that’ll indicate a new take on one of the existing elements. Taking combat another step beyond what it is, for instance, instead of just adding a new game mechanic because it seemed like a good idea.

You know, I don’t care if it is “just” a continuation of Sands of Time, because Sands of Time was one of the best fucking games of the last [x] years and if this was just More Levels, I’d still buy it. I really, really like the art direction, and I’ll be ultra-happy if they just don’t fuck it up too much. Any more than that is just a bonus.

Problem for me is that Sia’s “Breathe Me” is reserved for the final eight minutes of Six Feet Under, just like Gary Jules’ Mad World is reserved for the last few scenes of Donnie Darko. Everything else is eeeeevil.

What a negative crowd here! This game looks incredible, the trailer and its music were great, and having an AI-sidekick that you can actively involve at any moment seems pretty innovative to me. And no death!

Still looking good, although the trailers don’t offer up that many new tidbits.

@ Ophois: As I understand it the devs are treating it as being in an alternate universe to Sands of Time, basically saying that that was one Prince of Persia and the guy in this game is another. Given that the game seems to be sticking to the core tenets of the series reasonably well I think labelling it as a Prince of Persia game is fair, it’s certainly nowhere near the stretch that Far Cry 2 is at any rate.

The magical bouncy jump pads really worry me that the level designers couldn’t get to grips with providing interesting and more natural ways to traverse the larger environments, or else are just being lazy. Either way it’s a bad indication for the element people generally enjoyed the most from the previous games.
I make this prediction: the game will consist of three sections, first a disappoiting climbing bit scattered with levers to pull/buttons to press, a disappointing staged fight on a ledge/arena and a disappointing cutscene with grating voice acting. Repeat to fade. Also that the game will be held over into late January or early February as a tacit admission that it’s not that good. Fingers crossed I’m wrong and it’s brilliant but…

I’m quietly hopeful on this one. I absolutely adored SoT, byt couldn’t get to grips with WW, the darker style, and increased combat complexity failed to replicate the joy I had with SoT. I adore the presentation of this one, and the described combat system sounds a bit more fun than that seen in WW. I don’t think it’ll be an immediate purchase, but I’ll definately keep an eye on reviews and player response.

Well, after loving the hell out of Sands of Time, I’m prepared to give another relaunch a shot. The lack of Mechner involvement makes me shrink back a little bit, but it’s awfully pretty, and the gameplay looks smooth, if not entirely original. And I much prefer the indulgent Final Fantasyism to the gothy goth Dark Knight broody toss of Warrior Within.